New Year, New Me...Same Program?!

It's that time of year, you guys all know it. The gym is crowded like a club on half price drink night and you're lucky if you get to bench at all during the week. The masses are adorned with the brightest of yoga-like material and the smell of fresh New Balance trainers and discount Amazon "fitness hoodie" is like a low-hanging cloud over the gym. Those of us who visit the gym 12 months out of the year know that January is impossible, February is complex and March is usually the end of the line for the Resolutioners, but I'd like to submit that there is something we can all learn from them.

It's easy to get wrapped up your own bullshit. Even if you're a successful lifter or competitor, it gets very easy to start believing your own hype. I like to think I stay pretty grounded but this New Year I had to take a step back and it was good for me. Why do people make resolutions and why do they fail? This isn't news at all, but it's so simple the lesson gets forgotten each year; Resolutioners aren't committed. They aren't dedicated to the process, they are just trying to get into a new routine. For some, with the help of kind-hearted Iron Addicts like myself, they can make that adaptation and stick around after winter, but the sad truth is that most won't, because they never intended to in the first place.

Just like the Resolutioner who only works out two months of the year, we fall short too, but we overlook it far too easily. Did you hit all your goals for 2017? 2016? How about the real talk, motherfucker do you even HAVE goals written down for 2018? Just like the Resolutioner, we often fail to make the necessary preparations to be successful because we have adapted to a routine and not to a path to greatness. The only difference between most of us and the Resolutioner is that we keep writing in "Gym" on the daily planner while they erase it mid-March and change it to something else.

Don't treat January as just another month on the never ending treadmill of "making progress." Take a page out of the Resolutioner's book and make some real goals, get excited and dare to make some effort toward what you're really wanting to accomplish. Remember how bold you had to be to start in the very beginning? Rediscover that, stoke that fire and let 2018 become the year you break out of the routine and start making real progress.

Believe in yourself! (I know I do!)

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The New York Pro 2020: Florida, the Temporary Empire State

New York Pro 2020, held in Tampa, FL this year. L ast weekend we were blessed enough to have an IFBB Pro show go off without a hitch this year, as so few things have gone hitch-free during the COVID Pandemic, as the New York Pro was held in Tampa, Florida. As restrictions are not uniform and the state of Florida continues to be welcoming of all manner of gathering, the event was moved south this year and we have a brand new winner in Iain Valliere who beat out a handful of IFBB stalwarts and qualified for this year’s Mr. Olympia. Since winning his first amateur show in 2010, the Canadian heavyweight had powerful start in the world of bodybuilding winning six amateur shows and earning his Pro Card in 2014. While earning a Pro Card in four years seems good enough, Valliere won every amateur contest he was in during that time in his homeland before traveling south to Mexico in his campaign to get the elusive Pro Card at the Amateur Olympia. Life as a pro has been more of a steady c

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What's the Deal with Cedric McMillan and the Olympia?

Most of us proud meatheads fall into two categories with bodybuilding, we love the freaks like Ronnie Coleman or Roelly Winklaar or we champion the classic physiques of Frank Zane or Dexter Jackson. In the history of the Olympia we’ve seen that the judges tend to prefer a mix of both from year to year, but when the points get added up-they often don’t reward competitors with physiques in the middle. Such is the case with Cedric McMillan, the man who wins EVERYWHERE except the Olympia and there really isn’t a good reason why. Cedric McMillan, champion bodybuilder and proud member of the United States Army McMillan came on to the scene a little over a decade ago winning his pro card in 2009 and won his first show in 2011. Since then he has competed in thirty IFBB Pro League shows and won eight of them, including winning a little show called the Arnold Classic (Columbus) in 2017. In fact, other than two early outings at the New York Pro, McMillan hasn’t finished lower than sixth place a

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Mr. Olympia 2020: The Welsh Dragon Joins the Battle

On the surface it would be easy to dismiss anyone competing up into a bigger or more competitive pool of contestants, especially for their first time doing so. Of course, to dismiss Flex Lewis, the “Welsh Dragon” and seven time winner of the 212 Mr. Olympia title for any reason, might be a poor bet to make. But is this year’s Olympia the best place for the Dragon do tread into open water? Maybe it’s the perfect time. This year’s contest is stacked, and while the favorites are the defending champ Brandon Curry and returning seven time champion Phil Heath, the last two years have shown us that the static that once held the Sandow in place for years and year, might have lost its grip. With two new champions in the last two years, the rise in competition could be the perfect place for a dialed-in Lewis to not only make a splash, but make history. Though he ran roughshod over the 212’s for years, he was almost always among the largest contenders-or at least those appearing to be the l

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MUSCLE CHURCH: Our Father, the Iron

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